Russian aircraft bomb Vedeno outskirtsRuslan Isayev, North Caucasus – The number of missile attacks and bombardment has risen sharply in Vedeno, southern Chechnya, in the last week. The federal air force bombs especially southern and eastern outskirts of Vedeno where the Gizgin-Lam mountain and the village of Meini-Chu are located. In the night between Oct 23 and Oct 24, a few artillery grenades exploded just next to houses in the Dyshne-Vedeno village, but nobody was hurt. What saved local people’s lives was that they made to get to their cellars and temporary shelters. However, it was impossible to avoid some damage and the roofs of three houses were destroyed. As the local claim, the artillery attack against their village was planned.
In addition, the road between Shali and Vedeno has been blocked by Russian soldiers for the second day. Only women and children are allowed to go through the checkpoints in the Tsa-Vedeno settlement, situated in the Vedeno Gorge, where a “mopping-up” operation is taking place. According to available reports, unlike usually, the operation has claimed no incident in the village so far. Musa Chimayev and his son Bislan Chimayev, detained for possession of a hunting rifle, though kept upon a legal licence, were released after half of the day. Obviously, the rifle was not returned.
Local people say that the latest bombardment and “mopping-up” operations in the Vedeno outskirts are linked to recent Chechen armed groups’ attacks against the district military commandment and local police department in Vedeno. Chechen fighters torched the internal affairs department, beat the policemen and took their arms – one pistol, ten sub-machine guns and one machine gun. Besides, one policeman, Supyan Zulkornayev, is still hospitalized with a head-injury.
On the next day, the deputy district commander gathered the local people and claimed turning over those fighters who had participated in the attack against the department. What is more, he required returning federal arms with the threat of carrying out a “severe mopping-up operation” in the village. The people did their best to tell the soldiers that civilians have nothing to do with the attacks. However, as it seems, their attempts to avoid a “mopping-up” operation proved vain.
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